aftermarket gauges and fuses

[Neal Zimmerman]

OK, every gauge in the 68 fastback was shot so I installed 5 aftermarket gauges.. 4 of the gauges (Oil pressure, volt, fuel, and water temp) use the 1893 bulbs for illumination and the tach uses a 194. If I tap in to the 2 amp INST LAMPS fuse ( my book says it supposed to be a 2 amp fuse), that feeds off the headlight switch ( tan wire), is that little fuse going to support those 5 bulbs? I looked it up and each bulb is right around 5 watts.
I know that originally our dashes came with a resistor, but that's long gone with the burned up factory gauges.
That INST LAMPS fuse doesn't have any thing else running off it, now that the factory gauges are gone.
I thought of putting in LEDS to reduce load but you guys seem to be down on that approach.
I keep hearing mixed reviews about LED replacement in dash lights.
Neal

 

[Dana67Dart]

Ohms law
P=IV
Power = current times voltage

Power is 4x5=25W

Solve for I

P/V = I
25w / 12v = 2.1A

25w / 14v = 1.79A


The fuse protects the wire so if the wire is 18 awg you are fine even if you bumped the fuse up to 3 amps.

If the wire is 20 awg it looks like it can carry 5 amps so a 3 amp fuse should be ok

 

[67Dart273]

194 is about 4w but that is at full brilliance. The only resistor is the dash dimmer control on the headlight switch, do you still have that?

1893 show as 4.6w, .33A at 14v, and bear in mind, again, that is full voltage. "Through the dimmer" will drop the current draw quite a bit

My "seat of the pants" is that you will be fine.. If they are "plenty bright" you can either install lighter lamps, or maybe buy a 4 pin Mopar ballast and experiment with each resistor, or in series or parallel, and put that in series with the tan between the light switch and the fuse panel--going to the INST fuse

 

[Neal Zimmerman]

I looked at my wiring diagram. It says that the tan wire is 18 ga.
Yes I have a dimmer in my headlamp switch.

 

[4spdragtop]

We ran a triple gauge Autometer set on our 67 mounted under the factory AC diffuser. Installed led's instead of bulbs. Zero issues.

 

[Murray]

Radio light is also a dash light.